Having battled numerous health issues over the past few years, coroners established that it was Doug Furnas' heart that gave out on March 2nd, ending his life at age 52.

Furnas died in his sleep in his Tuscon, Arizona home.

"Fortunately, he died very, very peacefully," said his widow, Martha, on Monday. "He was a warrior and a champion. His cause of death ended up being his heart. I got the coroner's notice just this morning."

The official cause of death was atherosclerotic and hypertensive heart disease.

There had been talk about Sports Legacy Institute studying Furnas' brain for concussion-related injury, but it didn't happen, said Martha Furnas.

"I wanted the contribution. We were going to donate his brain,
but it didn't work out," said Martha.

The Commerce, Oklahoma high school gymnasium will be the site for both the visitation on Friday (6 p.m.) and the funeral on Saturday (2 p.m.).

EDITOR'S NOTE: Watch for a longer feature on Doug Furnas in the coming days, with thoughts from the likes of Coach Phillip Fulmer of the University of Tennessee, some of his football buddies, friends and family, and wrestlers and promoters, such as Davey Rich, Bob Polk, and Phil Lafon.